Look Under The Hood - Great Quotes in Franchising

Today's Great Quote in Franchising Comes from Mary Jane Riva, CEO of Pizza Factory. Mary Jane suggests aspiring entrepreneurs need to look under the hood before buying a franchise. Listen to this podcast to find out why.

Partial Transcript

Well, first, there are a couple of things. And one that as we're going through this journey ourselves from being a franchisee to the franchisor, it's understanding the roles of the franchisor versus the franchisee. That's important; what role are you playing versus the franchisor? And then, when you're looking at brands, the other thing for brands to me is really looking under the hood. Don't just look at all the stuff on the surface; dig down and see what extra charges there, you know, are they marking up stuff, you know, really evaluate a brand to a brand and not just the fluff kind of stuff you see on the top. And it's a lot of due diligence. But you know, ask the questions that will be once you're in there, you know, are they marking up the food product? Are they marking up advertising materials? You know, what are you paying? So, dig down and ask many more questions, and I would talk to many franchisees in the system and see how they feel about the franchisor and the brand itself. I would do a lot of due diligence with franchisees because they're the ones that are going to tell you.